Kadal The Conquerer
"Congratulations, you have recognised that your place is kneeling at the feet of the strong and this has saved your lives today. Go home and aspire to become stronger, to raise your place in the world, perhaps to strike me down, I care not and welcome the challenge if it comes."
A god who truly lived the philosophy of 'might makes right' and 'the strong should rule' in life, Kadal The Conquerer is a god of strength, war, and conquest. In life he was a conquerer who united Alhamland at the point of a sword, took over multiple tribes of Stormborn, and invaded Alboria twice, post ascendance he is a god of those who believe that the strong should rule and the weak should know their place. He has a strong rivalry with Iker The Blazing Sun, the Emperor of Alboria who defeated both of his invasions and ascended alongside him after they dealt each other mortal wounds in personal combat.
Mortal Life
Born in a village on the north-western coast of Alhamland, Kadal grew up watching the warriors load up into their longships and sail off towards the southern nations to raid and pillage, coming back loaded with treasure and tales of glory. At a very young age, barely into his teens, Kadal began joining the men on their raids and quickly distinguished himself as a warrior with skill beyond his years. Before long he was regarded as the most skilled warrior in his tribe, frequently issuing personal challenges to the most skilled warriors they met during their pillaging and never once defeated in battle.
By the time he approached adulthood he was leading his villages raids, and it was as they returned victorious from one of these that they found their village sacked, burned, and seemingly empty of all life. A survivor, one of their fellow villagers, was found cowering in the rubble and when interrogated revealed that the stormborn had done this foul deed. Appearing out of the heart of a fierce storm with drums beating and horns blowing, they had overrun the village in short order given that its best warriors were out raiding.
Overcome with fury, Kadal ordered his fellow raiders to find what rations they could in the ruins and prepare to set sail for The Stormwracked Isles to seek revenge. As blinded by rage as their leader, his fellow raiders rushed to do as he bid and shortly set out to the northwest, baying for blood. Tied to their bow was the survivor of the raid, though he had lived through the stormborn raid he couldn't escape Kadal's punishment for his cowardice.
Having braved the Stormwracked Isles eponymous storms, it was on one of the isles rare clear days that the vengeful raiders cought sight of a Stormborn village. Beaching their ship and leaping from it with screams of rage, the raiders fell upon the unprepared stormborn with the fury of those who had lost everything. They fought valiantly, but their smaller numbers and exhaustion from the long journey began to show and they fell one by one; Kanan was the last man standing and reaped a bloody toll before he too was finally brought down.
Enslavement
As a slave of the Stormborn, Kadal was worked hard and given no chance to escape, his every waking hour was filled with hard physical labor. Being reduced from a respected warrior to a mere slave shook his world view and he soon adopted an extreme version of the Stormborn's philosophy on life. The ideas that the strong rule the weak, might makes right, and if you can't defend something it was never truly yours would guide his life going forwards.
Kadal began challenging the stormborn to allow him to fight for his freedom, and while they laughed it off at first, eventually their leader heard his challenges and was amused by them. He declared that Kadal would fight his champion and if he won he would be granted a place as a Stormborn warrior, but if he failed he would have his tongue cut out to render him unable to challenge his betters ever again. Despite being given nothing but a poorly forged sword and no armor, On the day that he turned eighteen Kadal emerged from the bout victorious and took his place among The Stormborn.
Warrior of The Storm
One might have expected Kadal to seek further revenge against The Stormborn for the destruction of his village and enslavement of the survivors, but Kadal now believed that his people had been weak and had been justly defeated by those stronger than them. He took to his new role as one of their warriors with zeal and within a year had participated in multiple raids all along the coast of Alhamland. In the course of just a few years he became a deeply respected warrior who could always be found in the fiercest fighting, laughing as he slaughtered his way through the enemy.
Leadership among the stormborn is determined in personal combat, but with the caveat that the leader can freely decline any challenge unless the challenger can rally enough of the clan behind their attempt. In addition to becoming a respected warrior, Kadal had taken to telling tales of establishing an empire in the warmer, wealthier lands to the south, first taking Alhamland and then raising an army there to conquer the whole continent. These tales proved particularly convincing to the hot blooded younger warriors of the tribe, and by the time that Kadal had reached 25 years of age, he had gathered the necessary backing to challenge for leadership.
Kadal made a spectacle of his challenge, wearing the older man down and sundering his armor and weapons before casting his own weapon aside and killing him with his bare hands. Standing over the corpse of their former leader, he promised the assembled stormborn that he would lead them not just to victory in petty raids or against their fellow stormborn, but in conquering the entire continent, starting first with Alhamland.
Returning Home
Kadal and his stormborn would sweep across the north-eastern coast like a force of nature, capturing and subjugating rather than slaughtering and burning. Kadal would challenge the local Jarl to personal combat as an alternative to large scale battle, even offering to allow the jarl to fight alongside several champions if they seemed reluctant to accept. These personal challenges allowed him to absorb the forces of each village he captured largely intact, his army growing with each victory as he began to build his empire. With the entire north-east under his control the city of Selvagr was the only obstacle standing between him and the wealthy westlands. While his army laid siege to the city, Kadal and a handpicked group of elite warriors dared the frigid waters and infiltrated the city via the port, moving through the city under cover of darkness before taking the main gatehouse and holding it as his army poured through the gate.
With Selvagr under his control, the entirety of the western kingdom of Vestlandi was Kadal's to take and his armies stormed across the region, taking settlements and growing all the while. Within two years the capital of Manarfell had fallen to The Conquerer and for all intents and purposes alhamland was his. The many villages scattered along the fjords of Risteklippe never truly fell under his control, but most of the larger villages had at least nominally submitted to him and conquering the fjords was seen as an exercise in futility.
Southern Ambitions
With his homeland conquered, Kadal was quick to turn his attention southwards to the fertile lands of Alboria. While used to fending off the depredations of northern raiders, the people of Alboria's north-west coast were utterly unprepared for the scale of the invasion. Groups of four or more longships hit each settlement up and down the coast at the same time, with the larger cities facing as many as a dozen, taking the entire coast in one fell swoop. With the coast under their control, his forces swept inland and in short order the entirety of the peninsula known to the locals as "Le Museau", or "The Muzzle" was Kanan's.
As he consolidated his forces and prepared to push south, Kadal received word of a mighty army marching north to meet him lead by some would-be emperor named Iker. As the armies squared off, Kadal viewed the shining armor and bright pennants of the alborians with contempt and was about to order a charge when the first of the fireballs began flying in. As the front ranks of his army disappeared under a wave of arcane power, Kadal realized that he had grossly underestimated the sheer amount of casters that the Alborians were able to field and that he would be lucky to escape with a fraction of his army if he didn't order a retreat immediately.
Trouble at home
When Kadal's fleet limped home with a bare half of the ships they left with and a third of the troops, his problems began almost immediately. The more rebellious territories immediately rebelled, angry over the loss of their men in the invasion and Kadal's failure to deliver on his promises of conquest and treasure from the south. Even the lords and territories which stayed loyal began to question his rule and became more reluctant to send their warriors to support his ventures and put down the rebellions.
Over the course of the next decade and a half Kadal found his fledgling empire in a state of civil war on a regular basis, repeatedly having to personally intervene to crush the rebellions and re-affirm his control. In between stomping out rebellions he worked to increase the quality and number of spellcasters available to his forces, going as far as to order the founding of an arcane university. He personally lead his elite forces on multiple missions to The Stormwracked Isles where they would subjugate tribes of Stormborn via personal challenges to their leaders and strongest warriors, adding both their elite warriors and more importantly their powerful spellcasters to his forces.
As Kadal's control over Alboria re-solidified, he began encouraging his Jarls to launch raids on the desert nations to the east and eventually on outlying alborian settlements. These raids allowed the warriors to gain experience in battle and ensured that the more warlike of his Jarls gained wealth and power over their more passive peers. The Alborians began to fear what the the increased frequency and severity of raids could mean, and in a few short years their fears were validated.
Return to Alhamland and Ascension
Nearly two decades after his first invasion, Kadal lead an armada of longships towards Alboria which put his previous invasion force to shame. Landing his forces on both of the peninsulas which formed the western coast of Alboria, in just days both "Le Museau" or "the muzzle" and "La mâchoire" or "The Jaw" were under his control and his forces were converging from north and south on the fortress city of Arldsmouth. Placing the city under siege, the bulk of Kadal's forces moved out into the Arldempt River Valley, looting, pillaging, and burning as they went. Within days, Kadal's scouts brought him word that Emperor Iker had called up his lords and was assembling a mighty army to face him.
Pulling his marauding forces back to the open plains outside of Arldsmouth, Kadal prepared to meet the defenders of Alboria on the field of battle. A smaller contingent of the main Alborian army had pressed ahead of the rest, eager to crush the barbarian invaders, and as their knights charged, armor gleaming and colorful penants flying, the stormborn casters began their work. Sheets of lightning danced across the charging knights, felling them by the dozen, and as their charge faltered the horde of reavers began their own charge into the dazzled and stunned Alborian army.
Kadal and his honorguard lead the charge, smashing into the Alborian lines and quickly carving deep into the center, cutting down Alborians like wheat before the scythe, and the enemy began to crumble and rout before them. Pressed on all sides, thunder rolling overhead and fingers of lightning reaching down from the clouds to land within their lines, the alborian forces began to break and run, but had nowhere to go. Suddenly, blasts of fire erupted within Kadal's Lines, the clouds parted in places to allow shafts of sunlight to illuminate the field of battle, and the rumble of hooves announced the arrival of Iker - The Blazing Sun, Emperor of Alboria, and his army.
The armies clashed, screaming reavers smashing into grim faced men at arms and arcane power arcing back and forth between the Alborian battlemages and the assorted druids, shaman, and seidr of the northmen. In the center of the field, Kadal and his honorguard cut their way through the Alborian forces, only to be met by Iker and his Immolators, peerless battle mages who cleared swathes of the enemy army with their magic and strength of arms. Iker and Kadal clashed in the middle of the battlefield, arcane strength pitted against martial strength backed by enchanted steel.
As his men began to break and run, Kadal struck a mighty blow against iker, his axe digging deep into the chest of his enemy. Dying, Iker raised a hand wreathed in arcane energy and slammed it into Kadal's chest, rending the armor and the flesh beneath and blasting the two enemies apart. As they laid across from each other in the center of the battlefield, dying, shafts of golden light slammed down from the sky, enveloping both of them, followed by a blast of blinding radiance which knocked over combatants for hundreds of yards around the downed leaders. When the light cleared, both were gone, nothing but motes of golden light left where they once laid.
With their lord struck down and fresh Alboriain reenforcements pouring onto the field, the invaders began to break, pulling back towards the coasts and their longships. Burning and sacking every settlement between Arldsmouth and their ships, the Alhamish raiders were soon on their way back to their homeland with a tale of ferocious battle, deadly magic, and divine ascension.
Worship
Unusually for one of The Ascended, worship of Kadal is rare within his homeland, at least in his aspect as one of the Ascended. Kadal left children behind everywhere he raided, and many modern Alhamlanders can trace their ancestry back to him and include him in their practice of traditional Alhamish Ancestor Worship. Outside of Alhamland, his legend spread across the southern nations alongside that of Iker and only in recent years has his worship started to become more common in his homeland.
Worship of Kadal isn't common in so-called civilized lands, most of his worshippers are warlords, bandits, and others who live their lives by the mantra that might makes right and the strong should rule. His houses of worship are rare and those in the form of traditional churches or temples are even rarer, more commonly they will take forms such as the headquarters of a mercenary company or adventuring group which has chosen him as their patron god.
Kadal
The Conquerer
Alignment
Chaotic Evil
Edicts
The strong should rule the weak, Might makes right, Battle is the ultimate measure of strength
Anathema
Bow to those weaker than you, Support the weak against the strong, Decline a challenge
Areas of Concern
Strength, War, Ruling
Follower Alignments
CE, CN, NE, N
Devotee Benefits
Divine Ability
Strength or Constitution
Divine Font
Harm
Divine Skill
Athletics
Favored Weapon
Greatsword
Domains
Destruction, Might, Tyranny, Zeal
Cleric Spells
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